HammerFall is like ManOwaR, they kinda do their own thing. Their music can border the PowerMetal genre without ever completely staying within the vein. They are a Metal band.

No Sacrifice, No Victory is a strong album with tried and true driving rhythm and loads of harmony and melody. Why I compare them to ManOwaR is that their music is overtly majestic in the same way that ManOwaR songs such as: Heart Of Steel, Kingdom Come, or Carry On are.
What is great about this band, besides they are seasoned musicians, is their music has massive amounts of groove and can be deemed as, well, fun to listen to.
An onslaught of anthem after Metal anthem for sure, but, unlike ManOwaR, HammerFall‘s cheesy does not reach the same heights, rather, they avoid it by not making every song strictly about themselves. They definately do not put supposed likenesses of themselves on their album covers. Granted, they do have some insanely funny, albeit cheesy, song intro’s (intro for Legion) and, like Iron Maiden, they have their own album cover artwork mascot: Hector, who has graced every release barring their latest, 2011’s Infected.

I keep mentioning other bands in this. Being honest I will say this, HammerFall has found its own niche while remaining true to the style of music that made them want to play in the first place. Hence, when they sound like their influences, they really sound like their influnces. ManOwaR, Helloween, Dio, Accept, Iron Maiden… But they always sound like HammerFall.
If you saw the movie Rock Star (debacle), HammerFall can be compared to fictitious band Steel Dragon, and why not? HammerFall vocalist Joacim Cans has trained vocally with Jeff Scott Soto (Talisman, Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Axel Rudi Pell, Yngwie Malmsteen, Journey, and a slew of guest appearances… vocal whore!) who, unlike the popular belief that Steelheart vocalist Miljenko Matijevic did, sang the Steel Dragon songs. Yes, Joacim can belt it out with the best of them and I relish anyone who sounds like a classic Metal voice. Ronnie Dio, Michael Kiske, Jeff Scott Soto, David DeFeis, Eric Adams, Rob Halford, Rob Rock, and Joacim Cans – all great metal vocalists.

HammerFall is mostly considered PowerMetal by their fans. I would be hard pressed to add the Power before the Metal. Some songs, yes, but they play some damn good Metal music that is as based in technical theory as it is in Rock. It’s heavy, it grooves, it’s true HeadBangin’ music.

track listing for No Sacrifice, No Victory:
01: Any Means Necessary
02: Life Is Now
03: Punish And Enslave
04: Legion
05: Between Two Worlds
06: Hallowed Be My Name
07: Something For The Ages*
08: No Sacrifice, No Victory
09: Bring The Hammer Down
10: On Of A Kind
11: My Sharona**

* a f*ckin’ rockin’ instrumental
** Cover of The Knack‘s #1 song of 1979

HammerFall – true Metal at its best. Yeah, you could party to this shit. Mm-Hmm.